The impact of web design on impulsive shopping behavior online : moderating effect of consumer characteristics

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Final Thesis Project

MSc In Business Administration.

Specialization in Digital Business

The impact of web design on impulsive shopping behavior online. Moderating

effect of consumer characteristics.

22.06.2018

Yuliya Pulatova:10598049

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Acknowledgments.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following important people who have supported me, not only during the course of this MSc thesis, but through my MSc degree in Business

Administration, with the specialization in Digital Business.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Alessandra Zammit, Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna, for her huge support and guidance throughout the research.

I would like to thank dr. Umut Konus, University of Amsterdam, for his guidance throughout the course of Digital Marketing & Analytics, which made me passionate about online marketing.

And finally, I would like to thank my colleagues at Philips (Domestic Appliances BG), and Digital Marketing team specifically, for their huge support throughout my research and for making it possible to test my research results in a real-time online environment for various products.

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Statement of Originality.

This document is written by Yuliya Pulatova, who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the

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Abstract.

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the web design interface might influence consumer decisions in making unplanned, impulsive purchases online. Web design color linguistic emphasizes the role of each color palette in online retail. User experience designers say that warm colors are preferred to be used in online retail, because they evoke trust and security in consumer`s mind, whereas intense colors are associated with cheapness. Yet, all the major online retailers actively use very bright, intense colors which make the e-store very interactive, to increase online purchases. Also, in the online environment, promotions and popups that appear on the screen while consumer is shopping online, are called annoying ads and are said to irritate and distract consumers. However, online retailers frequently use promotions and popups to generate sales. This paper focused on these two web design cues and analyzed whether they might lead to the impulsive buying behavior, also taking into account consumer characteristics, such as intention to purchase a specific product and frequency of online shopping. Results revealed an interesting phenomena that consumers` tendency of regretting his choice affect impulsive buying behavior in a way that the higher the regret the lower the impulsive buying behavior. Also, if consumer appears on the web site with a purpose of buying an item, his visual evaluation of the website with calm and intense colors is different, as well as his evaluation of the popups and promotions presented on the website. In general, calm web design leads to a higher impulsive buying behavior, as well as popups and promotions that do not aggressively communicate a discounted offer. People with an initial intention to purchase tend to make unplanned purchases more when they see intense colors and when popups and promotions are advertising additional item without any discount, following a pull strategy to engage consumers.

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One of the UK’s fashion e-commerce market leaders ASOS, recently saw a decrease in sales as a result of a web design change that was negatively met by the loyal customers (Keegan, 2018). During the past quarter century, digital business concept, commercial use of Internet and World Wide Web have become widely observed. Moreover, academic studies proved a direct influence of Internet on consumer behavior. E-commerce market leaders such as Facebook, AliBaba Group, Amazon, Ebay set new levels of performance every year, affecting consumers` minds towards e-shopping. Even though the amount of companies playing in the area of e-tail is unimaginable, only 5% of those are succeeding: the question - why exactly, is still open. What makes customers like specific websites and return over and over again?

Nowadays, online shopping is a major trend in digital business. According to Statista (2018), the retail e-commerce worldwide in 2017 accounted for 2.29 trillions US dollars and is expected to almost double by 2021 with 4.5 trillions US dollars. Customers buy online whatever they need whenever they need. The most emerging issue in online retailing is the e-store design and design manipulations such as visual appeals, the interaction of web design aesthetics with usefulness and its potential impact on consumer behavior. Different kind of visual appeals such as pop-ups or animated promotions impress each customer in a different way. Product

presentations and a different kind of online shop features, which are all united under the web design aesthetics, potentially impact consumer behavior. However they really have an impact or consumers do not take web design as important when making a purchase? Customer

characteristics indeed impact the intension to impulsively purchase. Theory says that

unexperienced customers are more likely to intensively purchase and click-on aggressive ads (Chan et.al, 2004). It’s a wide known fact how images and publications in social media might upgrade or even ruin the reputation of the company, which could be followed by the dramatically decreasing sales. All the aspects of web commerce and daily increasing competition within the

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7 field, put companies at the fingertips of consumers. Barriers to enter the industry are blurring, when barriers to acquire and retain customers are raising.

The interaction between the customer and the web site is happening in less than a second. The right web design can get customers to engage with the brands, gain customers’ favor, and ultimately make a brand win or lose (Wells et. al, 2016). Recently, managerial studies proved the essence of website content for increased sales. What web design features favorably affect

consumer`s mind to continue the journey and bring consumers to the impulsive buying behavior is still under discussion. Some research says that the more interactive the website is the more likely customers will purchase impulsively (Chan et.al, 2004). While other research made conclusions that too interactive web sites generate negative emotions and reduce intension to purchase at all (Roggeveen et.al, 2016) How to measure the extent of favorable interactivity and not cross the border of interactivity is a question that most of the online retailers are struggling with. One of the web design features - pop ups, are discussed as favorable and interactive images, but only when they are intended to promote deals that are highly appreciated by customers. Otherwise, there is a high chance of loosing the customer forever.

The main issue discussed in the paper is the relationship between customer characteristics, web design and impulsive buying behavior. Literature investigates an influence of web design attributes on impulsive buying behavior, talking about the psychological affection as an influencer of impulsive buying. Dhar et.al (2007) call such an affection as a “shopping

momentum effect” - impulsive buying of a number of unrelated and initially undesired products. Different web design might activate different mindset for different customers leading to an online shopping momentum effect. Customer characteristics play an important role in this context, therefore it is essential to discuss the relationship between customer characteristics and impulsive buying behavior. Web design cues also expected to have an impact on strengthening the intention to impulsively purchase. Therefore, web design is expected to have a moderating effect on the impulsive buying behaviors. Literature provides the discussion on the influence of

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8 the web design cues on impulsive buying behavior, as well as discussion on how different

customer characteristics might affect the shopping momentum effect both in online and offline settings. However, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical discussion on the effect of both web design and customer characteristics when they are put together. Do customer characteristics actually influence how customers perceive specific web design and does this web design

perception lead to impulsive buying behavior and online shopping momentum effect? Why do some online retailers succeed, while others fail? What exactly makes the difference between a “good” online store and a “bad” online store, in terms of the web interface? Can it be a

psychological effect of the web design? What online marketing strategies companies need to adopt to increase sales, depending on customer base characteristics. There is a lack of empirical evidence to prove the contrasting effect of web design. Therefore, future paper with have a managerial relevance, providing a theory and evidence about the web design effect on impulsive buying behavior through activation of a different mindset. Therefore, this paper will focus on the following research question “To what extend does customer characteristics moderate the

relationship between the web design and impulsive buying behavior?”

First off all, an elaborate literature review will be presented and discussed, based on the recent research on the proposed topic. Following conceptual framework will provide a specific picture of research model and differentiation of variables used in the model. The next part will provide an overview of the methodology used to gather data, together with methodology used to analyze gathered data, following with the statistical results for tested hypothesis. Then, statistical results will be elaborately discussed to answer the research question and come up with the research outcomes, giving the managerial implication and providing essentialities for future research.

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2. Literature review.

2.1 Impulsive buying behavior.

Statistics shows that impulsive buying behavior accounts for almost 80% of sales in the certain product categories (Kacen & Lee, 2002) and generates sales for more than 4 billion dollars in USA annually (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2018). Literature defines impulsive buying behavior as an unplanned purchase, that occurs when people experience sudden, powerful and persistent urge to buy a product with no initial pre-shopping intentions either to a specific product or to a task (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998). Impulsive buying behavior is a marketing phenomena that proved to generate high revenues for retailers. After recognizing the significant effect of impulsive buying on customer purchase intentions, literature developed various psychological strategies to

influence and increase impulsive buying among customers, which were actively used by brick-and-mortar stores.

Action - one of the Dutch biggest non-food discount stores, operates with a business strategy that is described in their brand logo as “More for Less”. The store directly influences customers to impulsively purchase in store through cheap and enormously discounted prices (Action Nederland BV, 2018). Customer walks in the store with an intention to buy one specific product and leaves the store with a number of items he did not consider to buy initially. Dhar, Huber & Khan (2007) discuss the impulsive buying behavior as any purchases consumer makes without any advanced planning. Moreover, authors extend this definition further than an

unplanned purchase and considered an influence of an emotional element of a sudden and powerful urge to buy an additional product. Beatty & Ferrell (1998, p. 170) extend the definition of impulsive buying further to a “sudden and immediate purchase with no pre-shopping

intentions either to buy the specific product category or to fulfill a specific buying task. The behavior occurs after experiencing an urge to buy and it tends to be spontaneous and without a lot of reflection (i.e it is “impulsive”). It does not include the purchase of a simple reminder item, which is an item that is simply out-of-stock at home”. Piron (1991) identified main components

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10 of impulsive buying behavior: it is unplanned, it results as an exposure to emotional stimulus, involves an emotional and/or cognitive reaction and is decided “on-the- spot”. Impulsive buying behavior is treated as a marketing mystery and deviation from standard, which brings a huge share of sales annually. According to Piton (1991) impulsive buying refers to a distinctive type of an unplanned purchase, and the fact that impulse buying is unplanned is consistent with all definitions of impulse buying. All the impulse purchases can be categorized as unplanned purchases, but not all unplanned purchases can be labeled as impulse purchases.

Dhar et.al (2007) discuss the phenomena of purchasing initially undesired products as “shopping momentum effect”. Authors say that shopping momentum occurs when an initial purchase psychologically impulse an intention to purchase a second, unrelated product.

Moreover, Dhar et.al (2007) extend the idea of the shopping momentum effect arguing that the purchase likelihood for a “target” item will be subsequently increased with the purchase of an unrelated “driver” item. The psychological impulse might occur from consumer, store and product characteristics perspectives and situational stimulus (Chan, Cheung and Lee, 2017). Dhar et.al (2007) demonstrate that the shopping momentum effect enhances the purchase of a second, unrelated item through the shift in consumer cognitive mind-set from deliberation to implementation. Specifically, authors propose that the first purchase activates the

implementation based mind-set, which shifts from deliberation-based browsing, making

subsequent purchase more likely. When standing in the check-out line in grocery store customer sees a pack of chewing gum with an attractive packaging and a new flavor and decides to purchase a pack based on the attractive packaging or a new flavor, which results in a shopping momentum effect. According to Dhar et.al (2007), the attractive package and new flavor evokes the mind-set of consumer in a way that increases “likelihood to purchase” of an “unrelated” product, that is called a “driver”. Also, shopping momentum effect might occur on a suggestion impulse, when consumer observes the use of the product on some one else, while shopping, and decides he needs the product – consumer mindset changes from deliberation-based browsing to

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11 implementation-based shopping. Moreover, unexpected gift from the store increases the

likelihood of subsequent purchase Dhar et.al (2007). Therefore, it is essential to take into account several potential characteristics that might evoke a particular consumer mindset towards the impulsive buying behavior.

From the customer characteristics perspective, Kacen & Lee (2012) discussed the differences in impulsive buying between collectivistic and individualistic societies, proving that individualists are more effected by the external stimulus, that cause impulsive buying behavior, than collectivists. It is described by the nature of individualists to care about their personal desires only, rather than living by social norms and paying attention to the desires of others.

In online environment, impulsive buying behavior happens as a response to external stimulus, such as web design or product price, that triggers their desire to impulsively buy (Lim & Yazdanifard, 2015). As a result of innovations and consumers` adaptations the use of online shopping is increasing with an enormous speed. According to Dittmar et.al (2004) online environment influences overspending behavior, due to the process nature – remote spending doesn’t feel like spending tangible paper money. This suggestion has a significant importance for online retailers, as soon as they are searching for strategies to motivate people to spend more and buy unplanned products.

Statistics suggest that about 40% of online purchases are made impulsively (Chan et.al, 2017). Therefore, the shopping momentum effect might also happen in online environment, caused by customer`s personal characteristics, psychological affects, price deals and web design attributes. Dhar et.al (2007) suggest that price change presentation actively evokes the mind-set that leads to a greater purchase intent, than a fixed price offer for the same object. However, authors mention that the fact of purchasing different items through one trip is not always sufficient to identify a shopping momentum effect in purchase. Here cost perspective plays important role, due to a possible arrangements of a consumer to aggregate purchases through one shipping or at a single store to consolidate travel and shipping expenses. Therefore the link

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12 between impulsive buying behavior, shopping momentum effect and online shopping

environment is in an urgent need of attention. Customer characteristics affect the impulsive behavior, as well as the web design attributes. However, literature lacks investigation on how exactly these two variables might influence impulsive buying behavior when put together. Therefore, this paper moves further with analyzing impulsive buying behavior in online environment, focusing on the web design quality, its attributes and potential customer characteristics that might affect the impulsive purchase.

2.2 Online Shopping Environment – Web Design and Quality.

Retail web design and content presentation is definitely one of the most powerful drivers of getting customer`s attention and increasing sales. Web design describes a visual interface design presented to customer (Roggeveen et al, 2016). Web design stimuli are the cues embedded in the website that are visible and audible to the audience (Chan et.al, 2017). The first impression of the website happens in 50 milliseconds when customer either stays on the website, with

increased possibility of conversion, or leaves the website forever (Lindgaard et.al, 2006). Thus, companies understand the importance of the web design effectiveness and invest money to create and maintain effective web design environment.

According to Roggeveen et.al (2016) web design quality and visual appeals significantly affect consumer purchase intentions. When customer feels that an online store provides various interesting deals and offers, is easy to use and interactively structured, the e-store will be

perceived as more visually appealing (Liu, Li and Hu, 2013). Customer, who starts his customer journey on a visually appealing website, will have more pleasure in making a purchase and have a positive evaluation on making an unplanned purchase, resulting in a stronger feeling of being urged to buy impulsively. In addition, impulsive consumers are more likely to evaluate

unplanned impulse purchase positively, which in turn urges them to make purchase on impulse (Liu, Li and Hu, 2013). Literature also mentions the presence of the e-shopping momentum

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13 phenomena which is triggered by the mindset of the customer through the initial interaction with the website (Dubey and Raitani, 2016).

Hasan (2016) states that web design quality affects customer buying behavior through emotions either positively or negatively. As soon as the web design quality and characteristics drive consumer behavior, poorly designed web interface might awake irritation, dissatisfaction and future avoidance of online shopping retailer in consumer`s mind. Perceptions of irritation arise from unpleasant interaction with the web interface and its visual appeals. Thus, web design characteristics play a key role in developing customer attitudes and beliefs towards particular web site and effect a state of compulsive buying behavior. Research suggest that consumers are likely to compulsively buy from, return and repurchase from a better designed web sites (Wells et.al, 2011). Moreover, the same article adds to the opinion that poorly designed web content and visual web site presentation might irritate consumers and generate a very negative response towards the online retailer. In contrast, interactive visual appeals integrated in web design are perceived positively by consumers and generate compulsive buying behaviors when customers actually spend more money than initially expected (Hasan, 2016).

Literature also mentions the impact of product heterogeneity, characterized by

hedonic/utilitarian product features, on the influence of website assessments by consumers and further its influence on the shopping outcomes. While purchasing utilitarian products online, shoppers might seek to access product manuals and other product-related information, therefore website usefulness might play essentially important role in this context. Whereas, while

shopping for hedonic products on the fashion retailer websites, customers might want to look at 360-degree views of images, talk to customer representatives or pay attention on promotional deals. In this context, website interactivity is important in web design evaluations (Mallapragada, Chandukala and Liu, 2016).

Research suggest a number of web design characteristics that have direct influence on customer satisfaction, intentions to purchase and impulsive buying behavior. Among the most

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14 influential characteristics research identified general navigation, usability, interactivity, security and privacy (Turkyilmaz et.al, 2015). Additionally, research specified a term called

“webmospherics” that includes such web design cues as frames, colors, graphics, texts, pop-ups pop-up window, search engine configuration, hypertext and layout dimensions that have a direct affect on consumer`s mind in terms of the likelihood to impulsively purchase (Turkyilmaz et.al, 2015). Hausman & Siekpe (2009) mentioned that customers pay more attention to superficial aspects of a website, than to its content. Digital marketing analysts spend a lot of time to figure out creative strategies brands have to use to positively enhance buying behavior, what visual appeals drive positive emotions towards the brand and which visual cues are recommended to avoid when constructing an online retail platform (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Moreover, Hausman & Siekpe (2009) mentioned that the time spend on a website influences the intention to purchase additional, unplanned item. More time spend on e-retailer web site increases the intention to impulsive purchase decision.

Further, there is a need to elaborately discuss web design attributes and different cues that influence impulsive buying behavior.

2.3 Impulsive buying behavior through Web Design attributes.

Last quartile of 2017 negatively impacted one of the market leaders in online apparel retail - ASOS, with a web design change that was negatively judged by a big share of customers, including frequent shoppers (Keegan, 2018). Customers started spreading negative publicity in social media platforms, showing their negative attitude to new presentation of visual appeals and interface. In their opinion new web site was full of interactive images and search field was inconvenient.

Web design is indirectly affecting impulsive buying behavior through emotions, depending on customer characteristics described above (Lim & Yazdanifard, 2015). Forrester Research (2016) suggests that out of an enormous amount of companies going digital, only 5%

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15 actually succeed and one of the most influential factors for a fail is web design quality. The way visual appeals are presented, push and pull advertising strategies, used colors, interactivity, pop-ups and any kind of advertisement integrated in interface impact customer`s attitude. Online promotional strategies are different with in-store promotions, one of the key differences is aggressive type of online advertisement, for example pop-ups. Research suggests that during the online shopping activities, any kind of advertisement negatively affects customer`s intentions and desire to continue shopping (Brunner & Kumar, 2000). This paper focuses on a number of web design cues that might cause an impulsive buying behavior.

Popups – are model window that appear while user online experience. In the context of web design, pop-ups are referred as an aggressive type of advertisement (Lim & Yazdanifard, 2015), however, some research suggest that pop-ups might be effective in increasing impulsive purchase behavior, when an advertised product might be useful for consumer and corresponds to his desires (Chen et.al, 2004). However, literature suggest that aggressive pop-ups not only generate desire to leave the web site, but also might generate negative emotions towards the brand. Especially, when pop-ups are not related to the web site or the product (Lim &

Yazdanifard, 2015). Meanwhile, retailers actively integrate pop-ups to their interface because it’s a type of “sold” media channel that generates additional profit (Edelman & Salsberg, 2010). Moreover, customer`s characteristics play important role in this context, differentiating infrequent shoppers as the ones who are likely to click on pop-up, which might generate impulsive buying behavior, or vice-versa (Kannan, 2017).

Also, the presentation of product-related additional content – visual appeals, might differently impact each customer and therefore differently impact impulsive buying behavior. It is essential for e-retailer to build webmospherics that is positively evaluated by the consumer and creates a positive customer journey online, influencing a longer stay on a web site. Visual

evaluation of the web site happens in the first 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard et.al, 2006), therefore, e-retailers consistently use digital analytics to track customer journey and ensure positive user

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16 experience with the web site (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Also, authors suggest the importance of maintaining the content that is visually fresh and frequent, and includes incentives for consumer participation and engagement with the visual content. Web site interactivity positively impacts customer`s attitude, however if the web site is too interactive, positive emotions might revert into negative ones (Chen et.al,2004). Moreover, Web Design Aesthetics (visual appeals, color, Text, Hypertext, background) play an important role in web design evaluations. Colors, background, textual presentations indirectly influence consumer mind sets (Ashley & Tuten, 2015).

Customers with initial purchase intention and positive attitude towards the web site might react on advertising of additional content in a positive way and impulsively buy additions (Lim & Yazdanifard, 2015), while experienced and loyal customers enter might enter web sites with a committed focus to buy specific product without paying attention to ads at all (Seinauskiene et.al, 2015). However, Chen et.al (2004) suggest that product related “good deals” catch attention and might change the attitude of customers towards impulsive buying, but only and only if the deal is desired by the customer. Dhar et. al (2007) contributes to the same idea, saying that the shopping momentum effect is increased when there is a price participation. In other words, purchase intent for a product is increased when price is reduced comparing to the fixed price offer for the same product.

According to the Seinauskiene et.al (2015) compulsive buyers experience lower degree of brand attachment due to their variety-seeking nature, while non-compulsive buyers are more brand-loyal and prefer to stick to one online store, perceiving purchases from other e-retailers as a risk. Moreover, loyal users tend to positively evaluate advertisements provided by their

favorite e-retailer, which increases their tendency to impulsively purchase.

These kind of different digital marketing strategies are called “push” and “pull” strategies. Push strategy works with aggressive advertisement (f.ex pop-ups) and high level of interactivity, while pull strategy is focused on integrating customer attention towards the business through personal offers and making sure that product is there when customers need it

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17 (e.g. constructed integration of visual appeals) (Chen et.al, 2004). Online retailers provide

personal offers through loyalty programs, providing users incentives to integrate with the website and influencing their decisions to come back. With loyalty programs e-retailers try to increase customer loyalty. In digital business loyal customers are valued more than infrequent customers, therefore online retailers are focused more on keeping the loyal customer base and pay increased attention to convert infrequent customer to loyal customer (Kannan, 2017). Push strategies also work with personalized offers through website cookies, but the whole strategy is based on aggressive advertisement of additional products and too interactive content that might increase the intention to impulsively purchase, but also negatively affect the visual evaluation of the web site by the user, which might lead to immediate loose of a customer (Chen et.al, 2004).

Web design strategies differently affect each consumer. While increasing the intension to purchase for one user, web site might cause a very negative attitude for others. Thus, it is

important to consider different customer characteristics that might influence particular customer perceptions. Literature discussed in this section suggests that not only the web design interface alone affects impulsive buying behavior, but also personal customer characteristics and personal perceptions of a specific web design cues play key role in web design evaluations, which might sequentially lead to impulsive buying behavior.

2.4 Customer Characteristics as a moderator for online impulsive buying behavior.

When it comes to impulsive buying behavior, both in online environment and brick and mortar stores, it is important to consider that the effect of impulsive purchases is generated not only with the online-offline store configurations, but essentially with regards to customer personal characteristics. In this chapter, a number of potential customer personal characteristics that might moderate the relationship between web design and impulsive buying behavior are differentiated. As research suggests, a fundamental difference in online shopping perceptions is starting with an age. Young generation is more likely to impulsively purchase online by being effected

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18 by external stimulus, as they spend more time in online shopping activities and might have stronger web design evaluations, than older generation (Lim & Yazdanifard, 2015). Moreover, personality traits play an essential role in impulsive buying – people with a tendency to

impulsively purchase are described as unreflective, emotional and impulsive (Turkyilmaz et.al, 2015). Emotional states are also under a considerable attention. Positive personal emotions generated while the experience cause tendency to impulsively purchase, whereas negative emotions might cause unpleasant reflex towards the product or even the whole brand

(Turkyilmaz et.al, 2015). Regarding the online shopping, people with an initial interest to buy product from a specific online retailer are more likely to intensively purchase. Product

involvement according to Lim & Yazdanifard (2015) – perceiving good as personally important, might influence impulsive behavior, especially when combined with positive emotion state. Therefore, combining it all together, another variable that might drive impulsive online behavior is initial intension to purchase in online purchase from a specific web retailer, followed by positive emotional state that occurs while using the web site – positive affect of web design interface.

Another personal characteristic that effect interface evaluations is online experience. We can also attribute online experience towards frequency of online shopping. Customers with a high degree of online experience tend to evaluate online environment much stronger than customers with lack of expertise (Dubey and Raitani, 2016). Customers who are new to display or less frequently engage in online shopping are more likely to click, and even convert, without strong web site evaluations (Kannan, 2017). Whereas, online experts and frequent shoppers are more judgmental regarding their online experience and might loose their interest or generate negative emotions towards the web design very fast. Moreover, frequent shoppers are more likely to leave the web site if they do not like the interface and less likely to return or even have an intention to buy from the web site ever again (Kannan, 2017). On the other hand, Chang & Chen (2008) bring a contrasting opinion towards online experience, saying that experience

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19 positively affects web interface evaluations, so that experienced customers are less judgmental and don’t pay attention to visual appeals. Thus, another variable that might influence impulsive buying online is online experience.

As a response to quality web design, customer generates satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the web site. Satisfaction is an affective response towards the purchase situation (Chang & Chen, 2008). Marketing studies revealed that satisfaction is an antecedent of brand loyalty. Satisfaction might further generate a sense of e-loyalty towards the web site and web experience in general and increased satisfaction might generate a sense of increased e-loyalty (Chang & Chen, 2008). Customers who possess loyalty towards the web retailer are seen as people who possess positive emotions towards the web interface, so that they are less critical towards the favorite web shop and much critical towards another web design and visual appeals. Moreover, Chang & Chen (2008) suggest that e-loyalty effect intensions to impulsively purchase, whereas Seinauskiene et.al (2015) proved contrasting theory that brand loyalty negatively effects

impulsive buying, because impulsive buyers are expected to be very low on e-loyalty. Therefore, e-loyalty needs an attention towards impulsive buying behavior.

3. Conceptual Framework. 3.1 Variables

This paper is focused on measuring the influence of customer characteristics, web design cues and Webmospherics on impulsive buying behavior online – dependent outcome variable.

Web design is expected to be an independent variable, having an impact on impulsive buying behavior online. The proposed independent variable dimensions that have an indirect effect on impulsive buying behavior are: Web Design Aesthetics (visual appeals, color, Text, Hypertext, background) and Web Design Webmospherics (Popups and Promotions)

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20 Conceptual Framework of the Research.

Whether customer will impulsively purchase or not, might depend on his personal characteristic. A number of customer characteristics were argued as influencers of impulsive buying behavior. Moreover, web design evaluations of a particular consumer depend on his personal preferences. Therefore, customer characteristics will be treated as a moderating variable in future research. Research will focus on the most theoretically and practically interesting independent variable to design a research around: Initial Intention to purchase. Whereas Online Experience will be treated as a control variable, that might control the relationship between variables. The proposed dimensions of customer characteristics have an impact on impulsive buying behavior, however, there is also an indirect effect on web design appeals in each of this dimensions, therefore this paper will analyze whether there is a moderation effect in the relationship between web design and impulsive buying behavior.

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3.2 Research Hypothesis.

The previous subsections discussed existing empirical results and theory concerning the relationship between the impulsive buying behavior, web design quality and customer characteristics that might cause an intention to impulsively purchase from a specific online retailer. Literature review formed a sufficient base for hypothesis formulation.

Therefore, the research might start with a general relationship:

H1: Web design Aesthetics influence impulsive buying behavior in a way that calm web

design colors have more influence on consumers` mind-set towards impulsive buying behavior, than intense colors.

and

H2: Popups and promotions, expressed in discounts and offers, which are integrated into

the webpage influence impulsive buying behavior in a way that discounted popups and promotions cause consumer`s desire to make unplanned purchases more than not discounted popups.

The first hypotheses are general and are based on the literature review discussions. The relationship between web design and impulsive buying behavior might be explained in a various ways. According to Dubey & Raitani (2016), the shopping momentum effect proposed by Dhar et.al (2007) can be adopted to the online shopping environment as an e-shopping momentum effect, that is explained by implementation and activation of consumer`s mindset towards impulsive purchase behavior. More specifically, impulsive buying behavior mindset is

implemented though positive emotions evoked by the website environment, which starts from the basic visual and sensorial stimuli such as backgrounds, colors, music and continues with the navigation, usability, presented offers & promotions and the whole Webmospherics and

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22 for a prolonged stay on a web site, willingness to explore the web site more, thus increasing the potential possibility for consumer`s desire to buy additional products from the web retailer and leading to an e- shopping momentum effect (Dhar et.al (2007). Research proved the major influence of web design aesthetics on consumer purchase and repurchase intentions, time and money spent on the website (Rosen & Purinton, 2004). Therefore, the major focus of web designers lies in integrating suitable colors, backgrounds, music and interactive visuals. Web designers developed color schemes, which represent the impact of a set of colors on consumer`s minds in retail context, where red and orange palettes represent impulsiveness and interactivity, causing desire to purchase, whereas green and blue colors are differentiated as calm colors for budget consumers and black colors are used to promote luxury goods (Stribley, 2018). However, this color psychology for e-commerce contradicts arguments made by Ashley & Tuten (2015), which propose that pastel colors suits online retail environment better and generate more positive cognitive emotions, rather than aggressive and hyper interactive colors such as red.

Literature Dhar et.al (2007) suggest that presentation of additionally advertised content through popups and promotions might cause irritation and negative emotions in consumer`s mind if it aggressively communicates the offer. Moreover, high interactivity might also affect consumer journey in a negative way, due to its high distracting nature. Promotions that use pull strategy and do not aggressively promote discount might have a more engaging nature and cause consumer`s desire to prolong the consumer journey on the e-store (Kannan, 2017).

Moreover, literature discussed that consumers who come to the specific web store with an initial intention to purchase an item are already familiar with the web design and might have different cognitive evaluations towards the web store interface, compared to the new came users.

Consumers with an initial intention to purchase might be more influenced towards impulsive buying behavior (Turkyilmaz et.al, 2015). On the other hand, new came users and users that did not have an initial intention to purchase a product from the website and possibly appeared on the web store page while browsing Internet landscape might generate and evoke strong cognitive

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23 emotions through their interaction with web design aesthetics and experience a shopping

momentum effect (Seinauskiene et.al, 2015). In this case, web design aesthetics – visual stimuli, might have a greater influence on consumer`s desire to explore the web page and further

purchase an unplanned item. Chen et. al (2004) argued that a high degree of interactivity can lead to the negative consumer emotions, due to the distractions from their initial intentions, which might be potentially applicable to the consumers with a concrete intention to purchase a specific product. Therefore, there is a huge potential to explore:

H3: The relationship between web design and impulsive buying behavior is

moderated by the Intention to Purchase. The impulsive buying behavior through calm and harmonious web design is High if consumer had an Initial Intention to Purchase an item from the store and Low if consumer did not have an Initial Intention to Purchase.

H4: The relationship between web design and impulsive buying behavior is

moderated by the Intention to Purchase. The impulsive buying behavior through interactive, intense Web Design Aesthetics is High if consumer did not have an Initial Intention to Purchase an item from the store and Low if consumer had an Initial Intention to Purchase.

Additionally, literature discussed a potential differentiating effect of consumers` online experience that might play an important role in web design judgments and further in web store revisit and repurchase intentions. Frequent online shoppers tend to evaluate online environment much stronger than customers with lack of expertise (Dubey and Raitani, 2016). Customers who are new to display or less frequently engage in online shopping are more likely to click, and even convert, without strong web site evaluations (Kannan, 2017). Potentially, interactive colors proposed in the color scheme, such as red and orange, might work in the later context, catching attention of the consumer and web design aesthetics might prolong user`s stay on the web site.

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24 Hausman & Siekpe (2009) mentioned that customers pay extremely high attention to superficial and bright aspects of a website. Therefore, it is important to explore:

H5: Impulsive buying behavior through interactive, intense Web Design Aesthetics

is moderated by consumer`s Online Experience. It is High if consumer is Online Unexperienced shopper and Low if consumer is Online Experienced shopper.

The website success is proven to be significantly dependent on the web design

interactivity and its responsiveness on consumers. Interactivity of web design is defined as the effectiveness of consumer engagement and support tools on a website which facilitate a two-way communication with the consumers Chang & Chen (2008). Literature argues that interactive web design leads consumer to spend more time and money on the web site, however it generates positive cognitive state of mind and further positive outcomes, when interactive visual stimuli generates and suits consumer`s interest and focuses on consumer engagement with the web site

(Rosen & Purinton, 2004). Literature review differentiated promotions and popups presented on the web store page as a major web design interactivity cues. Dhar et. al (2007) discussed that promotions and native advertising, together with pop-ups presented on the website might evoke positive mindset when it communicates a “good deal” for the consumer. If promotion

communicates a deal consumer has interest in, potentially combined with a sufficient discount, it increases an urge to impulsively buy additional products. Otherwise, when additionally

promoted product communicated through pop-up doesn’t bring any interest in consumer`s mind, it might cause negative effect. Chang & Chen, 2008 might support this idea with the argument that website interactivity in terms of popups and promotions might bring negative emotions only, due to their distractive nature, which forces users to leave the website immediately. If these findings are combined with consumer characteristics, potentially frequent shoppers, possessing more judgmental web design evaluations than infrequent ones, might criticize promotions more

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25 strongly and subjectively. However, price reductions and special deals might set up an interest (Dhar et. al, 2007). Strong criticism might lead to the desire to leave the web site forever. Whereas, if the design aesthetics caught an attention of a new user and infrequent shopper, additionally advertised product might provoke an interest in the product on the spot, especially if there is a price participation, leading to a shopping momentum effect. In the context of

traditional shopping in the store, infrequent shoppers are more impulsive in experiencing a shopping momentum effect, especially when there is a price discount (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998) Thus, these arguments bring an interest to explore:

H6: Impulsive buying behavior through Popups and Promotions, integrated into

Webmospherics, that communicate a good deal for the consumer, is moderated by consumer`s Online Experience. It is High if consumer is Online Unexperienced shopper and Low if consumer is Online Experienced.

Chang & Chen (2008) discussed the distractive nature of promotions, native advertising and popups, underlying consumers that appeared on the e-store with an initial purchase intention. Users with a focused aim are more judgmental towards promotions and unneeded interactivity. However, if consumer already has a desire to purchase a product from the web site, he might fall under a greater influence of promotions and pop-ups, especially if promoted product is good deal, which leads to a greater shopping momentum effect (Dhar et. al, 2007). Therefore,

abstractly, consumers with initial purchase intention might gain interest in and buy additionally promoted products faster then consumers with random intentions and new users, even if there is no price participation. Yet, Seinauskiene et.al (2015) mentioned that customers might enter web sites with a committed focus to buy specific product without paying attention to ads at all, giving a room for discussion that consumers without initial intentions to purchase are more likely to be exposed to promotions and popups. Thus, there is a potential to explore:

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26

H7: Impulsive buying behavior through Popups and Promotions, that communicate

additional product without a price participation (discount), is moderated by consumer`s Initial Intention to Purchase. It is Low (High) if consumer`s Initial Intention to Purchase is High (Low).

H8: Discounted Popups and Promotions, communicating additional product with a

discount, lead to impulsive buying behavior among consumers with a high Initial Intention to Purchase.

This chapter stated a list of hypothesis for further research. The following chapter will elaborately discuss the research design that was developed to validate the hypotheses.

4. Research Design.

Research aims to investigate whether web design interface, more specifically Web Design Aesthetics in terms of colors, backgrounds and texts, together with Webmospherics in terms of additionally integrated promotions, pop-ups and native advertising, might influence consumers to impulsively purchase unplanned items. In other words, the purpose of this research to analyze whether web design of an e-store might provoke consumers to experience a shopping momentum effect. Nowadays, web designers spend a lot of effort to design an outstanding user experience (UX). Thus, there is a considerable interest to investigate whether visual appeals affect

consumers to spend more time and money on the web site, buying unplanned items. Yet, consumer personal characteristics and state of mind might play an essential role in the way web design interface is evaluated. Thus, future research will focus on exploring the following research question “To what extend does customer characteristics moderate the relationship between the web design and impulsive buying behavior?”

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4.1 Quantitative approach.

The research will adopt a quantitative approach, which allows to investigate the relationship between two or more variables, and enables to analyze the moderating effect of an additional variable (Field, 2009). Moreover, quantitative approach facilitates determination of a cause and effect relationship between variables. The research focuses on collection of numerical data, that will be further analyzed using SPSS statistics, searching for statistical evidences to accept research hypothesis (Field, 2009).

A number of studies (Turkyilmaz et.al (2015); Šeinauskienė et.al (2015); Wells et.al, (2011)) which studied subjects, congruent to the current research in terms of the relationship between web design cues and impulsive buying behaviour, also adopted quantitative approach to determine statistical evidences to support their research.

4.2 Operationalization of variables.

The research will follow an experimental survey design and will be based online. The

experiment will be designed as a True Experiment, where subjects will be randomly assigned to the treatment conditions and every block will be made up of separate groups of

respondents. There will be two separate studies in the research, each one will focus on one of the independent variables used in the model – either aesthetics or webmospherics. Each of the survey experiments will be structured as a 2x2 between subject factorial design, consisting of 4 blocks in each study and 8 blocks in total. Two independent variables (IVs) -Aesthetics and Webmospherics, will have two levels each. Moderating variable – Intention to purchase, will be treated as a third independent variable with two levels. Factorial design sometimes assumes testing for moderation (Field, 2009), therefore moderators are treated as IV, that change the relationship between another two IVs and DV (impulsive buying behavior). Online experience will be treated as a control variable (CV), that will control the relationship between IVs and DV,

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28 initially separating respondent into two groups – Frequent shoppers with a high online

experience and Infrequent shoppers with a low online experience, by asking a question to rate their online shopping frequency on a 10 -point Likert Scale. Therefore, respondents will be randomly assigned to each treatment condition, after they rate their online experience in the very beginning.

4.3 Data Collection Procedure.

The study will be designed using an online survey design tool – Qualtrics, which enables designing experimental survey with several blocks and allows using “Randomizers” to ensure random allocation of participants to different blocks. Afterwards, the survey will be spread on CrowdFlower platform to get sufficient amount of respondents participating in the experiment. The experiment will consist of 2 studies and 4 blocks in Study 1 and 4 blocks in Study 2, therefore 240 respondents are needed to gather sufficient amount of data.

The aim of the research is to measure analyze the relationship between IV and DV and investigate a moderation effect. DV- impulsive buying behavior will be measured by

participants` response towards the probability of purchasing an additional item from the web site that will be presented to the respondent, depending on different Aesthetics and Webmospherics. Respondents will be asked to rate how likely is that they will purchase an unplanned item from the specific web page on a 5-point or a 7 point Likert Scale.

One of the questions will aim to determine the level of online experience of each

responded. The online experience will be measured by the frequency of online shopping of each respondent. In other words, online experience will determine whether respondent is frequent or infrequent online shopper. Online experience will be measured on a 10-point Liker Scale, respondents who rate their online shopping frequency from 0-6 will be treated as “Online Unexperienced (OU)” respondents, consequently “Online Experienced (OE)” ones will give a

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29 rate from 6-10. Afterwards, respondents will be randomly assigned to different blocks. Online experience will be treated as a control variable.

In the first study, a fake web page for an imaginary e-store -The Boutique, will be developed and adopted specifically to the manipulation intentions under each of the blocks. Intention to purchase, as a moderator, will be manipulated in the scenario on 2 levels: Low Intention to Purchase and High Intention to Purchase. Participants will be given a scenario “Imagine you came on a web site to buy a new jacket…..” to indicate their intention to purchase. Low intention to purchase scenario will be created as “Imagine you were browsing internet and appeared on The Boutique e-store….”.

Web design Aesthetics will be operating on 2 levels and will be communicating different colors, backgrounds and texts on each of the two levels. First level will focus on intense colors: Orange, Yellow, Red – as soon as these colors are distinguished as influential colors on

consumer impulsiveness. The second level will elaborate on calm, pastel colors such as Grey, White, Beige and other warm palette, to test the difference in consumer response depending on a presented web design color. Additionally, aesthetics includes backgrounds and texts, therefore different backgrounds will be presented on each level. These levels will be combined with Initial Intention to purchase levels, constructing 4 blocks:

In order to sufficiently investigate whether colors and backgrounds have an impact on awaking different states of mind and emotions, which might lead to impulsive buying behavior,

respondents will be first shown the corresponding web design aesthetics style (Calm or Intense)

Initial Intention to Purchase Web Design

Aesthetics

High Low

Intense High + Intense Low +Intense

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30 and will be presented with a contrasting style (Calm or Intense) with the request to rate which style do respondents prefer. It gives an option to investigate impulsive buying behavior not only in terms of calculating the probability of a shopping momentum effect within a specific style, but also analyzing which color styles consumers prefer, thus - which aesthetics style provokes positive emotions and feelings in consumer`s mind. However, the major focus will be put on corresponding aesthetics style.

The second study will measure the relationship between discounted and not discounted promotions & popups on the impulsive buying behavior. Independent variable that will be tested is –Webmospherics, measured in terms of pop-ups and promotions integrated into web design. This IV will be operated on 2 levels: Promotion presenting a discounted offer – Good Deal (GD), and Promotion presenting an offer without any price participation. This IV will be combined with 2 levels of Initial Intention to Purchase variable.

Two web design pages were created for this study, both pages communicated the same

promotions, but on one page those promotions were discounted, while on the other page they did not communicate any price cut. However, on the second version, the word SALE was still used on one of the promotions, to test whether respondent might potentially click on the Sale item.

Initial Intention to Purchase

Web Design Webmospherics High Low Discounted Popups (DP) High + DP Low +DP Not Discounted Popups (NDP) High + NDP Low + NDP

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31 This research design enables testing and finding a statistical evidence to the research hypothesis.

5. Results.

This chapter aims to provide a complete overview of the results obtained in Study 1 and Study 2 to provide statistical evidence for hypothesis testing.

Study 1.

5.1 Sample Description

Starting with the descriptive statistics for Study 1, in total 133 participants took part in Study 1. Specifically, 74 males and 59 females (55.6%; 44.4%). Millennials in the age of 18-40 generated the largest group of participants – 117 (88%). Further information about the educational

background and employment of the participants can be found in the Appendix. All the

respondents were randomly assigned to one of the four blocks in the study. All the blocks were evenly distributed. During the data collection, respondents were asked an attention check question, to ensure that participants pay attention during an experiment. Attention check

recognized only 1 respondent that was not paying attention. His data was excluded from the data set, together with the “missing values” and irrelevant information. Thus, the total number of responses taken into account was 129.

5.2 Descriptive Statistics.

Before testing the hypothesis, general analysis about the Study 1 were performed. The aim of this study was to analyze the potential relationship between Web Design Atmospherics (colors, backgrounds) and impulsive buying behavior. Respondents were shown a web site with 1) calm, pastel colors and impulsive, bright colors. In general, web design with intense & impulsive colors occurred to be more Visually Appealing to the respondents (M=4.06; SD=0.704), than

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32 web design with calm, pastel colors (M= 2.03; SD = 2.105). Average value for the regret scale, frequency for online shopping

No significant difference was found in testing whether different web Atmospherics might cause a diverse emotional effect. Both web design atmospherics caused mostly positive or

neutral emotions in consumers` minds. Intense web design colors occurred to cause slightly more negative emotions, however the difference was very small (not sig)

Table1 : Emotions evoked through intense/calm web designs.

Also, calm and intense web designs did not significantly differentiate in effecting consumer`s desire to prolong his potential web site visit. According to the results, consumers were willing to prolong their visit and explore the e-store with calm (M=3.57; SD = 1.03) and intense (M=3.59; SD= 1.04) almost equally. The same outcome was found out for the intention to leave the web site immediately without any further purchase intentions, (M=3.1; SD=1.12) for calm and (M=3.4; SD=1.1) for intense web designs.

Correlation analysis proved a logical negative correlation between Impulsive Buying Behavior and Negative Buying Behavior (r=-0.358); p<0.05. Also, results showed that Impulsive Buying Behavior and Prolonged web site visit are positively correlated (r=0.706); p<0.05; indicating that prolonged web site visit leads to the desire to impulsively purchase online.

Emotions Intense Calm

M SD M SD

Valid Positive Emotions 5 1.5 4.6061 1.13579

Neutral Emotions 3.1045 1.84 2.7121 1.18717

Negative Emotions

2.4776 1.74 1.666 1.18131

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33

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

Table 2. Spearman Correlation for Buying Behavior and Prolonged Visit

Moreover, results suggest a positive correlation between the visual appeal of the web design and impulsive buying behavior (r=0.3550), p<0.05; which means that the more visually appealing the web design is to the consumer, the more likely consumer will impulsively purchase unplanned items.

Manipulation check worked for both dimensions. Respondents who were assigned to the calm web design, perceived colors as calm (M=1.9), while respondents who were assigned to the intense colors perceived the web design colors as intense (M=4.4). Online experience of

respondents showed an average result (M=3.66)

Next chapter will provide statistical evidence to accept or reject the research hypothesizes. Study 1 focused in H1, H3. H4 and H5.

1 2 3 1. Impulsive Buying Behavior 2. Prolonged Visit 0.706** 3. Negative Buying Behavior -0.358** -0.364** 4.Visual Appeal 0.3550** 0.623** 0.-325**

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5.3 Hypothesis Testing.

H1: Web design Aesthetics influence impulsive buying behavior in a way that calm web

design colors have more influence on consumers` mind-set towards impulsive buying behavior, than intense colors.

*Dependent Variable: Impulsive Buying Behavior

*Covariates appearing in the model: Regret

*Significant at p<0.05 level

*Dependent Variable: Impulsive Buying Behavior

Table 3: GLM for H1 SS DF MS F 𝜼𝟐 Sig. Web Design 3.803 1 3.803 4.018 0.030 0.047* Intention to Purchase 4.342 1 4.342 4.589 0.035 0.034* Regret 10.391 1 10.391 10.980 0.79 0.01* WD*IP 1.010 1 1.010 1.068 0.08 0.303 Error 121.125 128 0.946 Total 1336.000 132 Web Design: M SD Calm 3.194 0.126 Intense 2.819 0.126 Intention to Purchase M SD Low 3.201 0.123 High 2.812 0.124

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35 Theoretical part of the literature suggested that the e-store designed with intense colors causes an intention for the impulsive buying behavior, suggesting that the intense and bright colors in e-commerce are used to provoke an urgency to buy. Current research found out that there is no significant influence of web design aesthetics alone on the impulsive buying behavior F(1, 129) = 0.367; p > 0.05. Online Experience as a control variable also did not show any significant difference in this case F(1, 129) = 1.169; p > 0.05. However, when the additional Regret variable was controlled in the analyses, an interesting outcome was found, suggesting that there is a significant relationship between web design aesthetics and impulsive buying behavior F(1, 128) = 10.980; p < 0.05.

According to the results, impulsive buying behavior is more related to the Calm web design (M=3.194, SD=0.126), than to the web design with intense colors (M=2.819; SD=0.126 The outcome might contradict to the various discussions made in the literature review.

Consequently, there is a significant relationship between the web design aesthetics and

consumer`s visual evaluations of the web design, F(1, 128) =3.830, p<0.05 , which indicates that web design colors, in fact, influence consumer`s evaluations and mind. Results support previous indications and suggest that calm web design is more visually appealing to consumers (M= 4.196; SD= 0.108), than web site with impulsive colors (M=3.782; SD= 0.108).

Dependent Variable: Visual Appearance

*Significant at p<0.05 level SS DF MS F 𝜂2 Sig. Web Design 2.668 1 2.668 3.830 0.29 0.049* Intention to Purchase 0.745 1 0.745 1.069 0.08 0.303 Regret 5.396 1 5.396 7.748 0.057 0.06* WD*IP 2.697 1 2.697 3.872 0.029 0.051* Error 89.153 128 0.697 Total 2160.000 132

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*Dependent Variable: Visual Appearance

Table 4. GLM for H1.

Correlation analysis showed a negative correlation between the Regret and Impulsive buying behavior (r=-0.188), p<0.05, which indicates that the more consumer tends to regret his choices, the less likely he will impulsively purchase unplanned products.

There is no statistical evidence to conclude that there is a direct relationship between the Web Design Aesthetics and Impulsive Buying Behavior. However, statistical evidences prove an existing relationship between the Web Design Aesthetics and Impulsive Buying Behavior, when consumer`s Regret is controlled. Therefore, H1 might be partially accepted, but only when regret

scale is controlled.

H3: Impulsive buying behavior through Interactive, Intense Web Design Aesthetics

is moderated by consumer`s Initial Intention to Purchase. It is High if consumer did not have an Initial Intention to Purchase an item from the store and Low if consumer had an Initial Intention to Purchase.

Results showed no significant difference in the consumer`s purchase behavior with the

different level of the intention to purchase. Analysis indicated that the intention to purchase F(1, 129)=0.906, p >0.05, 𝜂=2_{0.07, does not have a tendency to influence consumer`s desire to}

Web Design: M SD Calm 4.196 0.108 Intense 3.782 0.108 IP M SD Low 4.020 0.106 High 3.859 0.107

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37 impulsively purchase, therefore no main effect was found. Consumers who were exposed to the e-store with intense web design colors and with the potential intention to purchase a jacket from The Boutique e-store had a slightly greater potential in impulsive buying behavior (M= 3.245, SD =0.173) than consumers without any initial intention to purchase (M=2.909; SD = 0.176), yet results were not significant.

Results revealed that respondents were likely to prolong their online customer journey with The Boutique if there was an intention to purchase (M=3.682) and vice-versa (M=3.461). Even though consumers with intention to purchase were slightly more motivated to explore The Boutique further, the difference is not significant. Logical outcome took place for negative buying behavior, where the goal was no analyze if consumer leaves the website immediately without any purchases at all. Intention to purchase played its significant role in this case. There was a significant difference in negative buying behavior between consumers with and without intention to purchase, F(1, 129) = 18.882, p< 0.05, 𝜂=2 _{0.127, which suggested that consumers}

with intention to purchase were less likely to leave the e-store without any purchases. However, we cannot say that this outcome happened due to contrasting visual evaluations of the different web design aesthetics from consumer perspective, as long as there is not enough statistical evidence, F (1, 129) =0.676, p>0.05, 𝜂=2 _0.05.

Dependent variable: Negative Buying Behavior

SS DF MS F 𝜼𝟐 Sig. WebDesign 2.034 1 2.034 1.832 0.014 0.178 Intention to Purchase 20.894 1 20.894 18.822 0.127 0.000* WD*IP 0.041 1 0.041 0.037 0.000 0.848 Error 143.199 128 1.110 Total 1480.000 132

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38 *Dependent Variable: Negative Buying Behavior

Table 5. GLM for H3.

On the other hand, as soon as the regret variable is controlled, outcome changes in a different direction. In this case, results show a main effect of consumer`s initial purchase

intentions on the impulsive purchase behavior F (1, 128)= 4.589, p<0.05, 𝜂=2 _{0.035. The effect is}

of a low size. Results suggest that the impulsive buying behavior becomes higher when consumer is shopping on a website with intense, impulsive colors without initial purchase intentions (M=3.110; SD= 0.170), rather than when consumer comes to the e-store already with an intention to purchase a specific product (M=2.53; SD= 0.205). This results correspond to the statement in H3.

Dependent Variable: Impulsive Buying Behaviour

IP M SD Low 3.535 0.129 High 2.742 0.130 SS DF MS F 𝜂2 Sig. WebDesign 3.803 1 3.803 4.018 0.030 0.047* IP 4.342 1 4.342 4.589 0.035 0.034* Regret 10.391 1 10.391 10.980 0.79 0.01* WD*IP 1.010 1 1.010 1.068 0.08 0.303 Error 121.125 128 0.946 Total 1336.000 132

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39 Dependent Variable: Impulsive Buying Behavior

Dependent Variable: Impulsive Buying Behavior

Table 6. GLM for H3

To sum up, interesting results were revealed through deep statistical analysis, suggesting that, in fact, impulsive buying behaviour might have a different outcome, depending on the consumer`s intentions, while browsing through the online store, and web design aesthetics. However, this relationship is only significant when consumer`s regret is controlled. There was no significant difference found in any other case during the research. Thus, there is no statistical evidence to conclude that the impulsive buying behavior through interactive & intense web Design Aesthetics is moderated by consumer`s Initial Intention to Purchase and has a tendency to get higher when consumer is randomly browsing an e-store without any initial purchase intentions and vice versa. Still, H3 is partially accepted.

H4: Impulsive buying behavior through calm and harmonious Web Design

Aesthetics is influenced by the consumer`s Initial Intention to Purchase. It is High if

consumer had an Initial Intention to Purchase an item from the store and Low if consumer did not have an Initial Intention to Purchase.

IP M SD Low 3.535 0.129 High 2.742 0.130 Intense WD M SD Low IP 3.110 0.170 High IP 2.528 0.205 Calm WD M SD Low IP 3.392 0.173 High IP 3.097 0.176